A driver for an delivery service recently helped police in west-central Texas foil a hostage situation after reporting that he had delivered zip ties, a hatchet and other suspicious items to a motel room as part of an order, according to authorities and media accounts.
In a news release published on social media, police from the city of Sweetwater said they had been called to a local motel on Monday morning by a delivery service worker who became suspicious over certain items that he delivered to a room there at the behest of a platform customer.
Police did not disclose exactly what the items in question were. But witnesses told Texas media outlets KTAB and KRBC that – among other things – the delivery included trash bags, zip ties, bleach and a hatchet.
Related: Texas man charged after 11-year-old boy shot dead while playing doorbell prank
When officers approached the room to which those items had been delivered, 42-year-old Neil Cooper of Snyder, Texas, said he was armed and would not come out, police said. Officers were also told that there was “a possible hostage … inside the room”.
The hostage managed to get out the room while police established contact with Cooper, police said. Cooper eventually surrendered to police after speaking with a crisis negotiator from Texas’s public safety department, according to investigators.
Police said Cooper was jailed on counts of aggravated kidnapping as well as illicit drug manufacture/delivery.
Meanwhile, the person whom police believe to have been a hostage in the scenario was also taken into custody – on counts of initially failing to identify oneself and in connection with a prior outstanding warrant alleging illicit drug manufacture/delivery in Snyder. That person’s name was not immediately released.
Police identified the platform employing the driver at the center of the case as DoorDash. Asked for comment on Tuesday, the company said it had confirmed with police that the delivery driver was not working for DoorDash specifically, despite what preliminary information from bystanders indicated.
Social media comments under the Sweetwater police’s post of Cooper’s arrest lauded the driver.
“Good job [delivery] person for paying attention to the small details!!” one user wrote. Another added: “Very deserving kudos to the DoorDash delivery person for being alert and not just [walking] away.”
Delivery drivers in the US frequently generate news attention for law enforcement matters that ensnare them even when they are not directly involved.
For instance, in May, a driver for the online delivery service DoorDash was shot and wounded in upstate New York after becoming lost, having his cellphone battery die and stopping at a home to see if someone there had ordered the food he was trying to deliver. Authorities charged a town government official with attempted murder after the shooting. The defendant subsequently pleaded not guilty, saying he feared a home invasion and was legally protecting his family.
